A few days ago a friend asked this question on twitter…
“Do you think, as an individual, you can ever be ‘too involved’/doing too much in the church?”
I answered with a simple yes…….
I was thinking about it again though and, if I were to elaborate on my yes, I now think I would add this;
“activity in the church [as an organisation/group/club] often exploits and wrecks people……..but a lot of the time if not always, the people who are ‘doing too much’ are fully-grown adults who should be able to discern when too much is in fact, too much! It’s a two-way thing!”
What do you think? Are you getting this right?
No, I most definitely am not getting the balance right… I have an inability to say no to people when they ask me to do things….
I feel there is an expectation that if you say no, you are seen as being lazy/uncommitted/unwilling to serve…
that expectation from others [if real] is poisonous……..lacking in grace and dangerous
but then, too often we elevate activity over depth [as Johnny states below]
doing kills being
activity trumps depth
busyness overtakes a stillness of soul….
a major beware, as Psalm 23 invites: lie down in green pastures.
like, voluntarily!!
thanks Johnny
Second what Connor said.
Have found myself in this situation. Often the work you do in Church is like a part time or often full time job which you are expected to do for free and with grace and patience.
agree completely Guy – it can be very frustrating
What do you do when you know that if you don’t do some things they might not get done at all? Could it be that many people find it all to easy to say no!
Thats a good point Tony and I reckon lots of people just have a blanket “NO” response to anything they get asked……thats the other side of the coin
Having moved church recently – finally catching up with our house move 5 years ago – I’m very deliberately getting involved very slowly and failing to say yes to things for a while. Having my bum on a pew (well, seat in this case) seems like a good way to rediscover Sunday mornings and become part of the community in a more sustainable and less exhausting way.
A huge second to this. After getting married a couple of years ago, I moved from the church where I was onetime employed. To just be able to turn up on Sundays and then gradually pick up one or two things during the week was great – I realised it was probably the first time since my later teens that I hadn’t always had something part to play on a Sunday.
But there are interesting symptoms of this. For example – I struggle greatly to sing/worship in church without holding anything in my hands (i.e. playing anything.) What do normal people do with the flappy paddles on the end of your arms?
I think you could dig a little deeper into it. Whether there is such a thing as ‘too much service’ is pretty circumstantial.
If we serve by our own strength, burnout is inevitable, and discouragement probable. However, if our service is a response to God’s grace and an outpouring of our faith in His love, Paul writes that ‘it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure [Philippians 2v13]‘. If it’s God who gives us a heart of service, the sky is the limit.
That being said, although serving in church is good for anyone who feels compelled to work as a response to God’s salvation [Philippians 2v12], I agree that for some, spending the equivalent of a full time job might not be the most wise stewardship of their time. It’s probably better to serve in moderation really well rather than burning out and serving poorly, possibly neglecting other areas outside church where God requires us to be stewards.
thanks for this Tom – that’s really helpful
It is a definite yes – though it is a two way thing!
There are people who cannot say no (I was one of those, im working on it, lol)
There are people who probably need to focus on their gifts and passions instead of trying to do a bit of everything
There are people who seem like they are doing too much to us, but for them it isn’t the case at all
There are people who want to get involved but don’t feel good enough or capable, or are overlooked because we focus on those who are already doing
Then there are those who do nothing at all, which is especially annoying when they complain about people who are doing things, lol
I love a quote I saw on twitter one – “Church is like a football game, 22 people who need a rest and 50,000 who need to do something”…..its a fair point I reckon
….sorry, that turned out to be a bit of a rant, lol
Sir Rants-alot McGall…….
not at all Steven, all valid and worth mentioning/discussing
Interesting chat. Would love to join in but I have a committee meeting I need to be at…..
smart-phone Neal……you can get connected to this if committee gets boring….not that it would like!
You’ve just solved my ‘too busy with church busyness’ dilemma. I’ll pretend to be on church business while continuing real life at the same time. Genius.
All valid comments and can’t find myself disagreeing.
However, in my current experience I don’t find that church busyness is the current trend. Perhaps a few years ago. But not recently. In some ways quite the opposite in fact!!
Perhaps it’s our programming that’s too busy rather than most of our people.